Bryan Jimenez

Professor Lee
AAS 201
February 28, 2017
The Struggle with Race

Unfortunately, we live in a society where people are very judgmental and they

tend to create opinions about someone solely based on their appearance without really

getting to know them. The is not the way a society should function. Everyone should

have an equal opportunity at living life to their maximum potential. After much time

invested in interviewing different people, I realized most of them say they have been

affected by either race, class, gender and sexuality in their daily life. For most of them,

these experiences have impacted their daily lives in a negative way.

I chose 10 minorities to interview on how race, class, gender, sexuality had

impacted their daily life. It was amazing to hear all the struggles they had to face due to

the fact people thought they were different from everyone else. One of the interviewees

is Dreamer and is currently working towards becoming a legal permanent resident.

Another of one of my interviewees was a dreamer, she is now a legal permanent

resident and plans to become a U.S. Citizen in the next couple of years. Another one of

the people I interviewed identified himself as a bixesual and explained the difficulties

that he has faced due solely to his sexual preferences in a partner. A couple of my

interviewees grew up in poverty and struggled on a daily due to their financial

circumstances. All 10 of my interviewees have been employed at salary paying jobs.

Dreamers have become a trending topic in the social and political landscape in

the U.S. Dreamers are undocumented students who have been in the U.S. for a majority
of their lives and have pursued a higher education. Now that Donald Trump has taken

office, there are many rumors that he plans to end DACA, a program that allows

Dreamers to obtain employment and continue to pursue a higher education. In my

opinion, this would cause a negative impact in our country. This is due to the fact that

all of these Dreamers are going to school and bettering themselves and maybe one day

could make a huge positive impact on this country. Not allowing to keep pursuing their

education sounds a bit cruel and unfair to me.

The first two of my interviewees are sister and have had to live life being

Dreamers. Joanne is a Latina female is a currently a Dreamer. Leslie was previously a

Dreamer but with the help of good immigration lawyers she was able to obtain her

status as a legal permanent resident. As we learned in class both Joanne and Leslie are

a great example of intersectionality not only are they Latinas, they were also females

and illegal.

Joanne explained to me how being a dreamer has honestly been the hardest

thing she has had to face in her life. She tells me how people automatically think you

are not as smart as everyone else. Joanne attended an elementary with primarily

Caucasian students. She remembers that her teachers would give her more attention

that her fellow classmates. When she was young she did not mind the attention, she

actually quite liked it. But when she grew up and realized they were only giving her

that attention because they thought she was a slower learner, that infuriated Joanne.

Race has had a huge impact on both Leslie and Joanne, both in their personal

and professional lives. It has even affected Leslies love life. She started dating a

Caucasian L.A.P.D Officer, and everything was going great, until she met his parents.
They were not big fans of their son dating a Latina. Eventually they broke up and went

their separate ways because his parents did not accept their relationship. Race has also

affected Leslie in a professional setting. She believes that due to the fact that she is

Latina, she has to prove herself more than others at her work. Leslie must always

remain one step ahead because if she makes a mistake her co-workers will think that

she only got hired because of affirmative action and not because of her intellectual

capacity.

Affirmative action is a really controversial topic. Many people call this reverse

racism. Affirmative action is a program implemented in many institutions that is meant

to give all people an equal opportunity at the higher level. This program favors

individuals from groups who have suffered from discrimination. Affirmative action is

usually more common when it comes to getting a job or getting accepted into a school

of higher learning.

I also interviewed Roxana Silva. She is a 27 year old female Latina. Race has

affected her throughout her whole life. She was raised in a family that fortunately made

many good business investment and became affluent. After this happened, they decided

to buy a house in the city of Sherman Oaks. They were in love with their new home.

They never thought the simple fact that they were Latinos would make their experience

there horrible. Unfortunately for them, a couple of their neighbors were Caucasian and

they really did not want hispanics living next to them. Living in a predominantly

Caucasian neighborhood caused them many struggles. They could not be in their

backyard listening to music in Spanish because their neighbors would immediately call

the Police with a noise complaint. If her neighbors kids would be playing outside and
she would try and go play with them, they would go back inside. Its absurd to me that

all of this happened simply because of Roxanas race. If her family were Caucasian,

they would most likely have had a much more amicable relationship with their

neighbors.

I was able to interview one of my neighbors. He is a 56 year old African

American male, named Tim. He says his race has made his life really complicated. He

made many references to the fact that people stereotype him on a daily basis. People

think he is a criminal or bad person solely because of the color of his skin. On the

contrary, he is a great man who has never committed a crime or has become involved

in drug abuse. During our interview, he told me a story that impacted me strongly. It

was Saturday night and he needed to go to the store that was just around the corner. He

was really lazy so he just threw on a hoodie and sweats. While driving to the market, a

Police Officer pulled up next to him in his squad car. Take into consideration that we,

live in an area that is predominantly filled with Caucasians. The Police Officer

immediately started to question him, as if he had committed a crime. Tim was alarmed

because of all scenes of police brutality against African Americans that he had seen in

the news in recent months. He told the officers he lived in the neighborhood and he

recalls one of the officer just chuckled. They made Tim sit down on the curve. Once the

officers asked him for his ID and realized he did live in the neighborhood, they still ran

his name through their computer. Eventually the officers realized they were making a

mistake. They allowed Tim to go, but never apologized for the inconvenience or for

stopping him without a good reason.

 After watching Jane Elliot, I learned that people say they do not care if you are

black or white but in reality they do. One of the student in the video said to a fellow

black classmate, I do not see color , I do not care if you are black. Tim heard this

growing up everyday. People obviously do see color or else they would not say this.

They say these things to try and make the minority feel better about themselves and for

them not to focus on the struggles they have to live on a daily due to their skin color.

Many African Americans lived as slaves for years and years. They were beaten,

tortured and even killed. Slavery was eventually abolished and African Americans were

Free, but till this day African Americans live in a society where they are not fully

accepted because they are minorities. In the book Racist America by Joe R. Feagin, he

showed examples of how minorities are discriminated on daily basis. A research project

was conducted in Los Angeles California, 1,115 emails were sent out regarding a home

that was up for rent. They used different African American names, Arab American names

and Caucasian names. The African Americans and Arab Americans received significantly

less positive replies than the Caucasian names (Feagin, Joe). They were just stereotyped

on their race and not given the opportunity to actually rent the place. The Americans were

given the opportunity just because they were Caucasians.

I was lucky enough to interview my old high school teacher Jose Alcala. He has

had a lot of experiences due to his race. He remembers that growing up he always felt

inferior to people that were different from him based on their race, such as Caucasian

people. It made him feel inferior in his abilities as a student, as a communicator and as

an athlete. Jose explained to me how just the simple fact that he knew he was a Latino/

Mexican made him believe he was only good for a Latino. In other words, there were
different standards for him and his Caucasians counterparts. He never thought he could

be better than Caucasians.

Jose played soccer growing up. He started playing soccer at Whitsett park

where the fields were all dirt and they were in really bad shape. At that park, everyone

on his team was of Latino descent. When his football skills had become better, Jose

decided to play club soccer and the demographics of his team drastically changed. Club

soccer is a little more advanced. The players and coaches have a higher level of skill

and usually status. When he started playing club, every single player on his team was

Caucasian except for him. At first, the kids were all very welcoming and nice to him

but that changed drastically as the weeks went on. Jose was a great player. He was the

starting goalie for a season on his club team. However, later a new goalie came and

took his spot. Jose explained that this new goalie was really bad. They scored goals on

him many times every single game. The only difference between the new goalie and

Jose was that the new goalie was a rich Caucasian boy. They left Jose on the bench for

the new season even though he was much better. The only reason they did this was

because of the color of his skin and his social status.

Jose has faced adversity his whole life, due to his race, in many facets of his life

including at work. Jose explained to me that he started teaching at a school up North

that was filled with rich wealthy kids, majority of them being caucasians. Every teacher

at that school was in charge of about twenty students. These were called mentor groups

that were sorted at random. When Jose was assigned his group, the school principal

came to his classroom and chose a couple of students that were on his list. The

principal then said that the parents of these group of kids, had high expectations for
their mentors, therefore they had to be reassigned to another mentor. Basically that Jose

was not capable of being a mentor for these kids. The school switched out those

Caucasian students and they put Latinos in Joses mentor group. Jose felt as if they

thought he wasnt capable of being these kids mentors because of his race.

In the book American Ethnicity by Adalberto Aguirre, he shows that Latinos have

a lower level of education as compared to all other minorities. Non Latinos in 2002 had a

87.4% High School graduation rate, while Latinos only had a 50.6% rate. When looking

at these statistics in higher education, the percentages are also drastically different. Non

latinos have a 28.6% college graduation rate and Latinos have a 7.6% rate. Maybe the

reason why latinos have lower success rate in the education field is due to the fact that

they receive unfair treatment at schools. This is apparent in the stories of Jose and a few

others of the interviews that I conducted.

Adalberta explains in his chapter 7 summary on Mexican Americans that many

Chicanos retain their Spanish language and other cultural traits. Sometimes that makes

them targets for discrimination. Seven of my interviewees were Mexican-American. They

all spoke Spanish and kept most Mexican culture in their lives. They are proud to be

Mexican Americans and they will not hide even though it comes with a lot of negative

attention. This can have negative effects on their professional lives. I saw this when I

interviewed Jenny.

Jenny is a Latina and a single mother. She has had to struggle throughout her

whole life. Jenny explained to me that as a minority, everything gets a bit challenging.

She is a physical therapist and has worked with people of all different races. She has

encountered situations where clients dont like to get massaged by her solely because of
her race. Jenny sometimes spoke in Spanish or dressed with attire typical to her Mexican

culture, which caused many of her racially intolerable clients to switch to other therapists.

This devastates her because she knows she is as capable as any other physical therapist.

Jenny said she hopes people one day will see everyone the same no matter what race they

are.

I also interviewed Adolfo Silva. Adolfo is 33 years male and graduated from

Cal State Northridge a few years ago. He says his life has been a roller coaster, filled

with many ups and downs. Being Latino and bixesual has really caused him a lot of

problems.

Adolfo has two moment that he say he will never forget. In these moments he

felt humiliated just because he was a Latino. In his eyes, he did nothing wrong and he

got treated very poorly. After graduating from CSUN and starting a new job he wanted

to give himself a nice little reward. He went to a Ford dealership in Woodland Hills

where he decided he was going to buy himself a Shelby Mustang. A Shelby Mustang is

a very pricey car, probably the most expensive Mustang there is. He spoke to a

Caucasian salesman and he said, Are you sure you want to see a Shelby? That is a

really expensive car, we have much cheaper Mustangs. Adolfos mouth dropped when

he heard that, he was really shocked that he was being treated that way. Just the simple

fact that Adolfo was Latino, made the salesman immediately think he did not have a lot

of money. Adolfo had another similar encounter like this. He went to a very fancy

restaurant and the service he received was one he will never forget. Once the waiter

once delivered the food to him, he said I hope you enjoy your meal because it is

probably the last time you will eat at a place like this. Adolfo was so upset he did not
touch his plate once. He gathered his belongings and walked out of that restaurant like

any person with self dignity would. It is absolutely ridiculous how people do not

realize that these comments could really hurt someone in a drastic manner. Not only are

they degrading someone, they are also causing them to have hatred towards people.

According to Adolfo, being bisexual is something that comes with a lot of

problems. Even though it does not seem like a big deal for some, certain people can not

accept it. Ive heard it all, Adolfo says, Ive been called fagget, queer, bitch, and so

many other names.This just adds on to the prejudices I face with me being Latino. I

have to fight even harder against society because of my sexual preferences. Adolfo

explained to me that he got bullied in middle school for being bisexual. There were

days where he did not even want to show up to school. Once Adolfo got to High

School, the bullying was a lot less but every once in awhile people made fun of him.

Thankfully for him, when he started CSUN everyone was so accepting and maybe

people did have a lot of comments about this but they all kept them to themselves. It

became easier for him to express himself without having fear of what others would say,

but Adolfo did struggle with being bisexual a lot while growing up.

I was able to interview David Gaeta, who is a mechanical engineer that

graduated from CSUN. His race has impacted him in devastating manner. David

explained to me that he really has had a hard time being a Latino. As his sons get older,

they are beginning to experience the same things he did. His kids are getting bullied

and laughed at just because of the color of their skin. Its unacceptable to see children

act this way, as they should not have hate in their heart but love and acceptance

towards others. As professor Lee said, kids are not born racist this is something they
develop over time. Kids are born loving each other. They do not care what color

someones skin is or what background they come from. An example professor Lee gave

us was in the playground you see all kids playing together, White, Asian, Latinos,

Blacks, and they dont care if they are minorities or not.(Lee) Racism is learned by

hearing your family or other people making racist remarks.

Many people do not realize what kind of racism and discrimination is really

going on in this world. The reason why they do not understand is because they are not

experiencing it on a daily basis, like some individuals do. Some Caucasians do not

believe that there is racism going on in the world. A lot of times people do not see the

racism in play. Only minorities that are living and experiencing discrimination on a

daily know in reality how much racism there is. In the short experiment Jane Elliot

conducted, she showed how blue eyed people, Caucasians, were not aware of what

happens to their fellow classmates just for being a minority. They did not realize racism

was this bad. Sometimes you have to step in other peoples shoes so you know exactly

what is going on. This was interesting to see from my next interview with Carlos, who

is of Latino descent, but because of the very light color of his skin looks Caucasian.

Carlos was a really interesting interview for me. Carlos is a Latino male but is

very light skinned. He tells me that his race has affected him in a different way. The

oppression and racism he has received has been from other Latinos. He hasnt really

encountered many problems with other people but Latinos. He explains to me how

Latinos tend to put him down cause he is light skin. They call him gringo even if

they know he is Mexican. Carlos feels as if they are jealous that he is light skin and

they are not. It is surprising to hear that Latinos put down other Latinos. This is really
surprising to me because minorities expect to be treated equally. However, they are

unable to treat those within their own race with respect.

The last interview I had was with Joe Avalos. Joe is a Latino male married to a

Caucasian woman. His race has had a huge impact in his life, especially with his wife.

He has heard numerous racially charged comments made due to the fact that his wife is

Caucasian and he is not. The simple fact that he isn't Caucasian makes people judge his

relationship with his wife. He has heard people tell his wife why did you marry a

Latino and not a Caucasian. Joes wifes family was very against their relationship at

first but once they saw how good of a guy Joe was they learned to accept it. Professor

Lee explained to us how most families want you to marry within your same race. Most

times if you do not marry within your own race you will get a lot of grief from the

family just like Joe did.

After interviewing Joe it reminded me of what we spoke about in professor Lees

class. We spoke about the differences on prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is the

belief or negative attitude about someone because they belong to a certain group.

Discrimination is the action denial of equal opportunities because they are a member of a

group. You could be prejudice and not discriminate people. In Joes case his wife family

were prejudice and discriminant towards him. This made Joes life with his wife a

rollercoaster.

Racist America by Joe R. Feagin talks about an experimental test that was

conducted by MIT that illustrates racial prejudices in the United States. The participants

applied to jobs using fake names that stereotypically sound like black names and then

applied with names that stereotypically sounded like white names. The results came to be
that the white names were 50% more likely to get a call back than black name

applicants. This is only shows what my interviewees say is true. They have to work twice

as hard to get a job and when they do get a job, they have to work to their maximum

potential every day because they can be fired in a heartbeat. The results of this

experiment can be applied to the lives of many of my interviewees who have dealt with

racial prejudices their whole life.

Overall, it is really surprising how all of the people I interviewed suffered a lot

due simply because of their race. It should not have to be this way. Everyone should be

judged and treated by their abilities, actions, and values, not by their race. It is important

to evaluate a person on something they have control over, such as committing a crime or

doing the wrong things but being born into a certain race is not a choice we have. My 10

interviewees and I were chosen to be born as minorities we did not choose this but now

we have to work hard and overcome all the obstacles that are going to be thrown our way.

It does not matter if you're white, black, brown, yellow, orange, blue, everyone should be

treated the same. We are all human beings. Even though it might be more difficult for

minorities to succeed, it is not impossible. These 10 interviewees are all living proof that

if you focus and work hard you will become successful regardless of whether you are a

minority or not.